Meetings yesterday

The Board of Selectmen held a meeting yesterday afternoon with seniors at The Center, for a no holds barred discussion of the options, status, and timing for senior housing. I learned a lot. Selectmen were supported by members of the Medfield State Hospital Master Planning Committee, who did the heavy carrying about explaining the status of that committee’s huge amount of work with respect to the redevelopment of the former MSH site.

Then Gus and I attended an evening regional selectmen meeting in Millis, attended by selectmen from six towns (see Medfield Press article below), where we discussed how each town is dealing with 40B, marijuana, and the new Federal stormwater rules. I learned a lot there too.

MILLIS – Local officials from several towns led a discussion Thursday on the deficiencies and possible reform of affordable housing rules.

Selectmen from Medway, Ashland, Hopkinton, Holliston, Medfield and Millis – convened in Millis to discuss a number of issues of regional importance, such as stormwater management, retail marijuana regulation and the voting process at town meetings. The towns have met several times over the past year.

Medway Town Administrator Michael Boynton noted that the “40B” affordable housing legislation – which allows developers to circumvent certain local zoning bylaws if their project has an affordable housing component and the town falls below a 10 percent affordable housing threshold – first went into effect in 1969.

“It’s not going anywhere,” he said, noting that a ballot initiative to repeal the rule in 2010 had failed. He added that many towns, when they reach the 10 percent threshold, lose interest in reform.

Boynton said the town had experienced – in the last 18 months – both friendly and unfriendly 40B developments.

Medway Selectman Glenn Trindade said the legislation, as currently written, does not solve the affordable housing problem in the most efficient way. He said apartments are most in demand, but developers want to build houses. With apartments, he noted, the residents’ incomes are reviewed after a period of time to ensure they still quality; the same does not occur with houses or condos.

“What we’ve got with this system is someone hits the lottery (and is awarded an affordable house or condo), and you help one person,” he said.

Fellow Selectman Dennis Crowley said he was concerned about what happened to affordable housing units. He said the town had seen instances in which condo owners had bought their units, refinanced at the market value of the condo, pocketed the difference and left. He also cited incidents in which people owned the units, but moved out and rented them to other people.

“Nobody’s monitoring these units,” he said.

Boynton suggested several reforms to the law. One change would allow towns to prioritize senior housing, while another would tie developments to a municipality’s master plan.

State Rep. Shawn Dooley, R-Norfolk, noted the difficulty of changing the legislation. He said he was pursuing reforms that would allow a slightly higher-priced unit to count as a percentage of an affordable housing unity. He pointed at his hometown of Norfolk as an example of where such housing is needed.

“We’re losing teachers, firefighters and police officers – they can’t afford to live in town,” he said. “We have (affordable housing) at $130,000, and the next house up is $500,000.”

2 responses to “Meetings yesterday”

Thank you so much for keeping me in the loop in regard to your Millis meeting. I attended the Senior Center meeting in Medfield. We seniors seem to be on the low end of the town’s decisions. Hopefully you can understand our frustrations. Eve Potts

Thanks for your input. My goal is for the town to make it financially easier for older people to continue to stay in town. It is the right thing to do, and it also makes financial sense for the town to invest in those citizens who do not use so many of the town services. The town will get a big financial return from any monies it spends to help our seniors stay in town.

Osler ”Pete” Peterson

Medfield Selectman

I started this blog to share the interesting and useful information that I saw while doing my job as a Medfield selectman. I thought that my fellow Medfield residents would also find that information interesting and useful as well. This blog is my effort to assist in creating a system to push the information out from the Town House to residents. Let me know if you have any thoughts on how it can be done better.

For information on my other job as an attorney (personal injury, civil litigation, estate planning and administration, and real estate), please feel free to contact me at 617-969-1501 or Osler.Peterson@OslerPeterson.com.

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